Catholic Youth Work:About
The aim of this page is to give people information about the CYW Wikia, including history, aims, contents, policies & sysops. History The CYW Wikia was started by me, Jack Regan, in August 2006. I have been working with websites for a while and I have been a full time professional Catholic youth worker since 1999. I have been trying on-and-off for a few years now to put together an internet resource for Catholic Youth Workers. I always wanted it to be interactive, varied and full of lots of different and useful content. I also wanted it to be seen as an exchange: in other words, where people were willing to give to the 'pool' rather than simply passively us what was there. When I found out about Wikias, I saw this as the ideal way to start the kind of resource that I had been looking for. With that in mind, I applied for a new Wikia and here we are. Aims The aims fo CYW wikia are fairly obvious really, but there are a few subtleties to it all. A Resource for Catholic Youth Workers There are very very few large resources available dedicated to CYW. There are some small ones, there are some large ones dedicated to wider christian ministry or to secular youth work, and there are numerous catechetical and educational resources, but alas not really an accessible and large CYW database/ resource/ encyclopedia. The intention is that CYW WIkia will eventually become somewhere where Catholic youth workers can come to find articles, information and ideas on many different facets of the work. A Large Resource CYW Wikia will hopefully grow to inclue thousands of pages of information and ideas. This can only happen if lots of editors are willing to share their time, knowledge and experiences with others. CYW Wikia is therefore a community effort and an important group work process. A Varied Resource The intention behind CYW Wikia is that it grows to become a resource covering all areas of CYW. We hope that people will be able to find training ideas, educational/ session ideas, prayers, liturgy resources, legal guides, jobs and just about everything that Catholic Youth Workers could possibly find useful. An Aid to Ministry A fairly self explicit aim, hopefully! An Interactive Resource The beauty of Wikias is that they are, for the most part, a living and organic discussion. Articles assume a special uality because each person who reads them is welcome to contribute to them and to improve them. CYW Wikia will never grow unless it's interactive, so we invite any and all contributions, as long as they're in line wit our policies, of course. A Resource with space to grow Another advantage of Wikias is that they can pretty much expand indefinately, so there is a good chance that we can fit as much as we like here! Contents The list of portals on the main page probably gives the best guide as to the intended content at the current time. New portals are always considered, of course. Click on one of the portals to see a full description of what's there. Policies In order to maintain the integrity and initial aims of the project, CYW Wikia has a few set policies which we ask all editors to adhere to. Content useful to Catholic Youth Work All content on CYW Wikia must be useful for CYW purposes. In other words, all content must be clearly be either: * Useful in aiding the work of Catholic Youth Ministry or individuals involved theirin * Useful to Catholic young people in their spiritual/ catechetical development * Interesting to persons mentioned above and clearly connected to matters mentioned above Note Regarding Events Articles about events can be useful, but they can also be inappropriate. As a general rule, articles should only be written about events if they were significant to a large group of people and/ or if they have something to teach which can be useful in the ways described above. As an example, articles about large national annual conferences or World Youth Day are good. Articles about the parish youth group trip to Taize, not so good! Content Appropriate to a CYW Site Content on CYW Wikia must not: * Encourage the rejection of Church teaching or liturgical/ sarcamental norms (although discussion of these and how they impact upon CYW is appropriate) * Offend those likely to be viewing it * Reflect a non-Catholic viewpoint. Those not involved in Catholic Youth Work may write or edit articles, but only in line with these policies. It is important to note here that, of course, anything may be talked about or discussed in CYW Wikia, but not everything may be recommended as a course of action or as a belief to be held. For example, discussing anti-Catholic groups and their views and tactics is fine, but pushing their views is not. Sysops Every site needs moderators to make it work. In other words, those who are judged to be trustworthy and responsible and who are endowed with more powers and rights than regular users, for example the power to protect and unprotect pages, the power to modify protected pages, the power to block users and the power to delete inappropriate articles. CYW Wikia requires that sysops are: * Experiences Wikia/ Wikipedia users * Experienced, and still involved, in Catholic Youth Work. This must be verified by the administrator. Any user is welcome to ask for sysop status if they think that they can help out in this regard. Leave a message on the administrator's talk page. More policies will almost certainly develop in response to questions and concerns as CYW Wikia develops. Get in touch Anyone who wants to suggest improvements to CYW Wikia can contact me. The best way to do this is to leave a message on my talk page.